Morning Read: Dow Risks Seventh Drop in Eight Days

By Brendan Conway

Market check: A “risk-off” tone before the regular session. The U.S. Dollar Index is ahead by 0.2% and demand for Treasury bonds is higher. Crude oil futures edge lower to $85.30 per barrel. Gold trims a fraction to $1708.80. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA) enters Friday down six of the last seven sessions, and futures are pointing lower shortly after 7:30 a.m. ET.

Fund watch: Investors pulled $1.3 billion from high-yield funds and ETFs last week amid the selloff, writes my colleague Mike Aneiro, citing Lipper data. It’s a turnabout from a week ago, when those funds were nearly flat ($82 million of net inflows). More than half of the money came from ETFs. The iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond Fund (HYG) ended Thursday at $90.67, down from $91.82 last week, while the SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bond ETF (JNK) closed at $39.70, down from $39.94 last Thursday.

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Chris Dieterich has covered the U.S. stock market for The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. He is a graduate of Regis University and the Missouri School of Journalism.